The couple – Jole, 84, and her 94-year-old husband, Michele, became anguished after watching the TV news, which included stories of terror attacks and abuse at a nursery in Italy, they told police.

Their cries were so loud that they were heard by a neighbour, who called the police.

Fearing that their home had been burgled or they were victims of a scam, the four officers – called Andrea, Alessandro, Ernesto and Mirko – headed straight to their apartment.

But instead of arriving at the scene of a crime, they found the lonely couple, who said nobody had been to see them for months.

“There was no crime,” the officers said in a statement on Questura di Roma's Facebook page.

“Jole and Michele were not victims of a scam, as often happens to the elderly, and there was no burglary. On this occasion, we had a more difficult task to perform – these were two lonely souls who needed reassuring.”

The officers’ description of the incident last week melted hearts, with the Facebook post being shared over 24,000 times.

The couple have been together for 70 years.

“Jole and Michele love eachother,” the police wrote. “But when loneliness burdens the heart, you lose hope…the TV kept them company, but they wondered why there is so much wickedness in the world.

“Sometimes loneliness can melt into tears, especially on a sultry Roman summer evening, when the city is empty and neighbours are away on holiday.”

While waiting for medics to arrive to check the couple were OK, the officers asked permission to access their pantry and set about cooking a simple dish: pasta and parmesan. 

“It was nothing special,” they said. “But it included a special ingredient: humanity.”